#360view: Pogba arrival provides Man Utd with complete midfielder

Matt Jones - Editor 06:54 30/07/2016
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  • Prodigal son returns: Paul Pogba.

    The world record fee Manchester United will pay Juventus to re-sign Paul Pogba might well leave the Red Devils a little red-faced but it is a signing they simply have to make.

    When the Frenchman left for Turin four years ago, United received a paltry £800,000 (Dh3.8m) in compensation. They will have to shell out 140 times that amount to get one of football’s hottest commodities back but executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward can justify the astronomical fee because it instantly transforms Jose Mourinho’s side into Premier League title challengers.

    The acquisition of Pogba, in addition to the arrivals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly, is a formidable assortment of summer signings by Mourinho.

    Assembled by a hungry new manager with a point to prove and with a job he’s long coveted, it should see them legitimately challenging for the Premier League title for the first time in three seasons.

    United have been trying to find a Pogba-esque player since they allowed him to walk out of Old Trafford on a free transfer in 2012. In truth, he fits all the criteria United have needed in a midfielder since Roy Keane’s still heavily-felt departure more than a decade ago.

    Put aside how disappointingly ineffective he was for France at Euro 2016, for a second – United are acquiring a truly brilliant footballer. He scored eight goals and bagged 12 assists last season – the joint most in Serie A. He has 28 goals in 124 league appearances during his time in Turin.

    To put that in perspective, he has scored three more goals than the entire corps of midfielders United have deployed in central midfield in the four seasons since he left.

    Ander Herrera, Morgan Schneiderlin, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Anderson, Darren Fletcher and an ageing Paul Scholes. That list does not exactly send shivers through rival teams, nor scream world class, yet Pogba oozes it.

    His long, rangy running style from deep makes him a tremendous threat going forward while he also has the non-stop engine to help in defence, something so intrinsic to a Mourinho team.

    He made 22 more tackles (76) than any other Juventus team-mate last season, blocked the fourth most shots (6), made the second most key passes (54) and was the third most fouled (57). He is the very definition of a complete midfielder and will give United a dynamism they have been crying out for, for far too long.

    There will be those who have their doubts about the move, besides the £100m (Dh486m) fee.

    It’s hard to ignore just how poor he was at the Euros. Form at a summer tournament always brings harsher scrutiny, though. His ineffectiveness had as much to do with having played 49 club games (the second most for Juve after the 51 he played in the 2013/14 season) as it did with suffering under the weight of an expectant nation and Didier Deschamps’ limitations as a manager.

    Deschamps, also a former Old Lady favourite, wanted to build his Les Bleus team around Pogba but appeared simply unaware of how to do that. Under Mourinho, a tactically astute manager in the same vein as Antonio Conte, who moulded him at the Bianconeri, his development is sure to continue.

    He is an upgrade on every single central midfielder currently at the club and better than anyone who has played there in the last 10 years.

    Given time and back at the club where he was always destined to thrive, Pogba can take United back to the very top.

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